The Eyes of the Huntress
Page 22
‘And my name,’ Shil said to the corpse, ‘is Shil. Get it right, arsehole.’
Epilogue
Leshona Island, Karvonay, 26.4.632 Local Calendar.
The sun was, as usual, beating down on the black, volcanic sand of Leshona Island. Shil had been of two minds about coming back, but it seemed to have been a good call. As she carried drinks out, she could tell that Lindsey and Marcus were relaxing; just for starters, Lindsey was topless.
‘I did not take you for a topless sunbather, Linds,’ Shil commented as she set the tray down and then settled onto a lounger.
‘She’s not,’ Marcus replied. ‘Maybe leaving the planet has a weird effect on Earthwomen.’
‘It sort of does,’ Lindsey said. ‘I mean, on holiday you can be what you feel like being, because there’s no one there who knows what you’re usually like, right? Well, that goes double when it’s another planet you’re holidaying on. No one here aside from us even speaks our language.’
‘Huh. I guess you’ve got a point.’
‘I do.’ Lindsey turned her head to look at Shil. ‘Do they allow nude sunbathing here?’
Shil laughed, partially because Marcus barely stopped himself from spitting his drink over his wife. ‘They allow anything that isn’t actually illegal, and that isn’t.’
Lindsey giggled. ‘I sort of figured that was the case. I’m sure the maids will be surprised we’re using separate bedrooms.’
‘The maids are robots with very non-judgemental AIs. They won’t have any opinion on our sleeping habits.’
‘Oh. Something else to get used to. Mind you, I got used to Cantarvey pretty easily. She’s just like a real person.’
‘She is a real person. She just happens to be a real person in a computer.’
Lindsey giggled again. ‘She certainly has a deft touch with a scrubbing brush.’
‘Huh?’ Marcus asked.
‘Nothing, love,’ Lindsey replied, giving Shil a wink. ‘It was really nice of you to bring us here, Shil. I know we have to go back, but I’d hate to know all this was out here and not see some of it.’
‘Taking care of T’ney and his friends netted me quite a substantial pay-out,’ Shil said. ‘Putting the two of you up here for a few days is not going to dent that much. You needed to recover, both of you, and we have a few things to talk about before I take you back.’
‘Like whether we can really be allowed to go back?’ Marcus asked. ‘Or remember what we’ve seen if we can?’
‘No,’ Shil stated flatly. ‘That’s off the table. StarCorps aren’t idiots, and they do know something about Earth. I told them if you went back claiming you’d spent time sunning yourself on an alien beach, no one would believe you anyway. There’s no point in altering memories or keeping you out here.’
‘That’s something.’
‘We’ll talk it all over at dinner tonight.’
‘Alien food,’ Lindsey said. ‘I bet they don’t do fish and chips in the restaurant.’
‘Of course they do,’ Shil replied, grinning. ‘They just don’t call it fish and chips, and you’d never recognise the fish, and the chips aren’t made from potatoes.’
Lindsey giggled. ‘Do we get alien wine?’
‘Sure.’
‘Cool. I’m going to get drunk and make improper suggestions about the sleeping arrangements.’ Lindsey opened an eye to check that Shil was indeed giving her a look. ‘What? We’re on holiday in a really foreign place. It’s what you do.’
~~~
‘Okay,’ Shil said, ‘do you want me to order, or do you want to stare at the letters you don’t understand and try to guess?’
‘I’d like to try the fish and chips,’ Lindsey said. ‘You have me wondering now.’
Shil was wondering a little too: Lindsey had selected a microdress which left nothing to the imagination, and Shil was starting to wonder whether her friend really would suggest a threesome. Shil was in something not too different, however, and Marcus was having trouble concentrating. ‘Okay,’ Shil said, ‘I’ll see what they’ve got. Marc?’
‘Uh, just pick something out you think I’d like. We’ve been out to dinner together before.’
‘True. I’ll think of something.’ There were a few beef-like meats on the menu Marcus would likely enjoy. It was just a matter of picking a sauce and vegetables.
‘Is it just me,’ Marcus added, ‘or is everyone looking at us?’
‘They are. This is going to sound racist, but we’re white.’
‘So?’ Lindsey asked. ‘There are all sorts of colours around here.’
‘But not white. Or anything like black human skin either, actually. Armils are black, but it’s black. Like charcoal or something. Tholdarians can be quite a dark purple, but it’s still not in a human skin shade. The galaxy used to be, well, owned by a species called the veda. Very advanced. They had pale skin and the other species still view pale skin as, um, strangely attractive. It’s why T’ney and his crew were aiming to export humans from Earth.’
‘So, everyone fancies us?’
‘Any of us could probably have the pick of anyone here.’
‘Cool, orgy in our bungalow then.’ Lindsey was casually peering at the menu, even though she had no clue what it said.
‘I think this has gone to your head,’ Shil said. ‘Anyway, the veda didn’t really look like humans. Their skin was paler than ours is naturally. Which is saying a lot when it’s an Englishwoman saying it. And they had silver hair. Not like platinum blonde. Silver. If I’d gone with silver instead of red, I could rule the galaxy.’
‘You said they used to own the galaxy?’ Marcus asked.
‘They… vanished. No one knows what happened to them.’ Even Shil did not know, which she found a little suspicious. It seemed like someone had erased the data from the records, and why would someone do that? ‘That was thousands of years ago, and the galaxy has never entirely recovered.’ Shil caught their waitress’s eye and waved her over to order. The girl was lurian, like Araven, and entirely awed by serving three people who looked like veda. Shil found it kind of amusing, though having the girl there reminded Shil that Araven was not.
With the order taken, Shil took a sip of her wine and got down to business. ‘So, if you did tell anyone what you’ve been up to–’
‘They’d lock us up somewhere with padded walls,’ Marcus said. ‘I’ve no intention of telling anyone anything. I know it’s a little crazy, but you said you’d get Linds back, and you did, and that’s all I care about. I owe you, big time, Sheil– Uh, Shil. Trying to get used to that.’
‘I think I prefer it,’ Lindsey said. ‘I’m saying nothing. To be honest, the person I’d have told is the one asking me to not tell. Plus, you know, saving me from becoming some alien pervert’s mindless love slave.’ She frowned. ‘I’m going to miss my best friend, Shil.’
Shil shrugged. ‘I missed my best friend. Now you know about all this, maybe I can drop in for visits now and then.’
‘That’d be so cool. Plan for several days. I’ll want to hear all the galactic gossip.’
‘What about Brian?’ Marcus asked.
‘I did not miss Brian,’ Shil replied. She sighed at the look on Marcus’s face, and gave him a nod. ‘When I take you both back, I’ll clear things up with him. Or for him. I’m out of his life, Marc. I should’ve divorced the prick years ago. What happened to the girl he was fucking in the secretary pool?’
‘She dumped him when the cops started sniffing around. Being suspected of murdering your wife puts a damper on your love life. Are you really sure you don’t want to–’
‘I can’t. I have… a duty out here. Besides… Marc, I ended up in prison, and because of my skin, I was picked up by this guy who was the toughest man on the block. He’s a navidad, like that guy over there.’ She pointed toward a huge, red-skinned man having dinner with an equally red and almost equally muscled woman. ‘So, I was sort of the sex slave of a multiple murderer. And I was… doing what we did one day and
I had a horrible revelation. I had a better relationship with Narad than I did with Brian. And I certainly got more out of the sex. I’m better off out here, Marc. On Earth, I was nobody. I was the cuckquean wife of an accountant. Out here, I’m an independent woman. I kick arse and take names. And I do something important.’
‘Huh, kind of hard to argue with that, but, well, Brian’s a friend and I had to say something.’
‘I know. I’m not holding it against you.’
‘Unless you get lucky later,’ Lindsey said. ‘But then we’ll both be holding it against you.’ Marcus made sputtered noises and sipped his wine rather quickly. ‘Anyway, Marc, you haven’t seen our Shil in action. Really, she’s amazing.’
‘Well, I saw the costume she wears. That was pretty amazing.’
‘Damn right. She’s not Brian’s Sheila anymore. She’s Shil the Huntress and criminals quake at the sound of her name!’
Shil grinned. ‘Not yet, no, but they will do.’ Yes, she was sure they would. New Huntress, new way of doing things. Shil the Huntress was going to be someone the bad guys feared. And she was going to make it happen in a way Sheila Napier never could have.
###
About the Author
I was born in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall so perhaps a bit of history rubbed off. Ancient history obviously, and border history, right on the edge of the Empire. I always preferred the Dark Ages anyway; there’s so much more room for imagination when people aren’t writing down every last detail. So my idea of a good fantasy novel involved dirt and leather, not shining plate armour and Hollywood-medieval manners. The same applies to my sci-fi, really; I prefer gritty over shiny.
Oddly, then, one of the first fantasy novels I remember reading was The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper (later made into a terrible juvenile movie). These days we would call Cooper’s series Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy and looking back on it, it influenced me a lot. It has that mix of modern day life, hidden history, and magic which failed to hit popular culture until the early days of Buffy and Anne Rice. Of course, Cooper’s characters spend their time around places I could actually visit in Cornwall, and South East England, and mid-Wales. In fact, when I went to university in Aberystwyth, it was partially because some of Cooper’s books were set a few miles to the north around Tywyn.
I got into writing through roleplaying, however, so my early work was related to the kind of roleplaying game I was interested in. I wrote science fiction when I was playing Traveller. I wrote “high fantasy” when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing City of Heroes. I still love the idea of a modern world with magic in it and I’ve been trying to write a novel based on this for a long time. As with any form of expression, practice is the key and I can look back on all the aborted attempts at books, and the more successful short stories, as steps along the path to the Thaumatology Series.
Recently I took the big step of quitting my day job and taking up full-time writing. My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Susan Cooper, J.D. Robb, and Kim Harrison. Kim’s Hollows books were what finally spurred me to publish something, even if the trail to here came by way of Susan, back in school, several decades ago.
For More Information
Take a look at the Witches and Ray-guns blog: http://witchesandrayguns.wordpress.com
Links to book vendors and other information can be found there, along with a view on what I’m up to and when it might happen.
Other Books by this Author
The Thaumatology Series
Thaumatology 101
Demon’s Moon
Legacy
Dragon’s Blood
Disturbia
Hammer of Witches
Eagle’s Shadow
Ancient
Dragonfall
The Other Side of Hell
For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll
Vengeance
A Midsummer’s Nightmare – coming
Anthologies in the Thaumatology Universe
Tales from High Towers’ Study
Tales from the Dubh Linn
The Aneka Jansen Books
Steel Beneath The Skin
The Cold Steel Mind
Steel Heart
The Winter War
The Greatest Heights of Honour
The Lowest Depths of Shame
Hope
The Ultrahuman Books
Ugly
Shadows
Hunting Mink
Frostburn
Guardian – coming
True Dark – coming
The Unobtainium Books
Kate on a Hot Tin Roof
King Solamet’s Mines – coming
The Reality Hack Books
Reality Hack
The Fox Meridian Books
Fox Hunt
Inescapable
DeathWeb
Criminal Minds
Emergence
The Ghost in the Doll
Eden Burning
Dominance
The Princeps Venator Books
Hunter’s Kiss
Be My Valentine
The Gunwitch Books
Gunwitch: Rebirth
The Children of Zanar Series
The Zanari Inheritance
The Misfits Series
Misfit Magic
Misfit Witchcraft
The Sondra Blake Series
The Vanity Case
The Shil the Huntress Books
The Eyes of the Huntress
Table of Contents
Part One: Sheila
Part Two: Shil
Part Three: The Huntress
Part Four: Power Corrupts
Part Five: Bad Breath
Part Six: Home Is Where the Heart Is
Epilogue
Table of Contents
Part One: Sheila
Part Two: Shil
Part Three: The Huntress
Part Four: Power Corrupts
Part Five: Bad Breath
Part Six: Home Is Where the Heart Is
Epilogue